The Author's Voice in Classical and Late Antiquity

Edited by Anna Marmodoro and Jonathan Hill

Investigates a range of disciplines with a multi-disciplinary approach

Covers the period from Homer to late antiquity

Considers both Greek and Latin authors and texts

The Author's Voice in Classical and Late Antiquity

Edited by Anna Marmodoro and Jonathan Hill

Description

What significance does the voice or projected persona in which a text is written have for our understanding of the meaning of that text? This volume explores the persona of the author in antiquity, from Homer to late antiquity, taking into account both Latin and Greek authors from a range of disciplines. The thirteen chapters are divided into two main sections, the first of which focuses on the diverse forms of writing adopted by various ancient authors, and the different ways these forms were used to present and project an authorial voice. The second part of the volume considers questions regarding authority and ascription in relation to the authorial voice. In particular, it looks at how later readers - and later authors - may understand the authority of a text's
author or supposed author. The volume contains chapters on pseudo-epigraphy and fictional letters, as well as the use of texts as authoritative in philosophical schools, and the ancient ascription of authorship to works of art.

The Author's Voice in Classical and Late Antiquity

Edited by Anna Marmodoro and Jonathan Hill

Table of Contents

Foreword Ewen BowieList of Illustrations List of Contributors Introduction Anna Marmodoro and Jonathan HillPart 1: The author's voice: presentation and function Section 1.1 The author's voice in the third person 1. The poet in the Iliad, Barbara Graziosi2. Xenophon's and Caesar's third-person narratives or are theya?, Christopher PellingSection 1.2: The author's voice in dialogue 3. Listening to many voices: Athenian tragedy as popular art, William Allan and Adrian Kelly4. When I read my Cato, it is as if Cato speaks: the birth and evolution of Cicero's dialogic voice, Sarah Culpepper Stroup5. Author and speaker(s) in Horace's Satires 2, Stephen HarrisonSection 1.3: Theauthor's voice in the first person 6. I, Polybius : self-conscious didacticism, Georgina Longley7. Drip-feed invective: Pliny, self-fashioning, and the Regulus letters, Rhiannon Ash8. An I for an I: reading fictional autobiography, Tim WhitmarshPart 2: The author's voice: authority and ascription 9. Ille ego qui quondam: on authorial (an)onymity, Irene Peirano10. Authorship and authority in Greek fictional letters, Andrew Morrison11. Plato's religious voice: Socrates as godsent, in Plato and the Platonists, Michael Erler12. When the dead speak: the refashioning of Ignatius of Antioch in the long recension of his letters, Mark Edwards13. Ars in their I's: authority and authorship in Graeco-Roman visual culture, MichaelSquireIndex

The Author's Voice in Classical and Late Antiquity

Edited by Anna Marmodoro and Jonathan Hill

Author Information

Anna Marmodoro is a Fellow in Philosophy at Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford. She has a background in ancient and medieval philosophy, and a strong research interest in metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of religion. She has published journal articles in all these areas, and edited two collections of essays: The Metaphysics of Powers (2010) and The Metaphysics of the Incarnation (OUP, 2011). She also directs a large-scale research project based in Oxford, which investigates the nature of the fundamental building blocks of reality in ancient and contemporary thought.

Jonathan Hill is Templeton World Charity Foundation Research Officer, based in the Department of Materials, University of Oxford. He was previously Research
Assistant in the Philosophy Faculty, working with Anna Marmodoro on a Leverhulme-funded project on the philosophy of religion. He is author of The Lion Handbook: the History of Christianity (2007) and Dictionary of Theologians: to 1308 (2010), and co-edited with Anna Marmodoro The Metaphysics of the Incarnation (OUP, 2011).

The Author's Voice in Classical and Late Antiquity

Edited by Anna Marmodoro and Jonathan Hill

Reviews and Awards

"The variety of authors and literary genres treated by the contributors, the learned and clear discussion in each chapter, and the fascinating theme of the book make this volume worth reading."
--Bryn Mawr Classical Review